Archive

TheFightNetwork has a new article up where Black Mamba’s trainer says that Mamba will participate in DREAM.5. Mamba’s last DREAM fight was against Tatsuya Kawajiri in the first round of the Lightweight GP. He gave Kawajiri a lot of trouble but lost via decision in the end.

Hayato Sakurai has a new post on his blog where he writes, as we already know, that his fight against Nick Diaz for DREAM.5 is off and that it has been postponed until September when DREAM.6 is scheduled to take place. He also apologizes to the fans in Osaka.

The DREAM.5 poster is up on the official site and has a few faces on it which will probably fight on the card. They are Mirko Cro Cop, Minowaman and Mark Hunt. Also on it is Joachim Hansen but only as text without picture.

The first fight for SENGOKU IV on August 24th has been announced. Peter Graham returns since his loss to Kazuyuki Fujita at SENGOKU I and will fight his second MMA fight ever against French Moise Rimbon (Europe Top Team). Rimbon has been in the MMA game since 2000 and started out his career quite bad with a 4-5 record, but in his 13 last fights he has gone 8-2-3. This fight will be in the Heavyweight division.

Update: All participants and fights of the Lightweight Tournament will be announced next week. Gomi’s opponent will be announced in one or two weeks and will be chosen from three foreign fighters.

Update #2: The semifinals and the final of the tournament will take place the same night at SENGOKU VI in November.
____________

I don’t know where they got this from but on MMAWeekly’s rumor section they have Takanori Gomi vs. IFL fighter Chris Horodecki listed as a possible fight at SENGOKU IV. This is a good fight for Gomi while waiting for the winner of the Lightweight Tournament and it should be entertaining style wise.

In the latest issue of Gonkaku, FEG President Sadaharu Tanigawa says that Amateur Wrestler Akihito Tanaka will debut in DREAM. He is a freestyle wrestler and wrestles in the 120 kg (265 lbs) division. He has won the All-Japan Wrestling Championships seven times in a row now with the last win being in 2007.

Actually, during K-1 Dynamite!! 2004 he was announced as a new fighter signing together with Hong-Man Choi and Heath Herring but I don’t believe he ever fought after that. He is popular in Japan and another smart signing by FEG.

The DREAM Welterweight title fight between Nick Diaz and Hayato Sakurai that was rumored to take place at DREAM.5 in July will not happen according to GracieFighter. Apparently EliteXC can’t let him fight that date because they have something else for him around that time.